Transcript J. WWII, part 1

World War II: The Build-up
U.S. in isolationist mode after WWI
New Legislation:
-Washington Naval Conferences:
agreements and limitations on certain
types of sea warfare, promised to
uphold China’s sovereignty, no
enforcement
-U.S. Neutrality Acts of the 1930s:
U.S. could not supply ANY belligerent
nations, either victims or aggressors
Meanwhile in Japan
• Military leadership takes over “behind the
scenes,” General Tojo real power behind
Emperor
• Goal: Greater East Asian Co-prosperity
Sphere (a closed Asian empire)
• Wanted raw material and cheap labor in
Asia, instead of depending on the U.S.
• Invasion of Manchuria, 1931
Japan, con’t
• Atrocities in
occupied China
led to escalating
U.S. trade
embargoes.
Japan
knows
they’ll soon
have
access to
French and
Dutch
colonies in
Asia,
through
alliances
w/Germany
•Begin full-scale invasion of China in 1937
Meanwhile in Germany
• Adolph Hitler comes to power in Germany
• Massive economic & psychological
depression, scapegoats Jewish population
• 1933 – declared Chancellor for Life
• Begins breaking Versailles, builds up war
machine
• Series of small steps
Process of Appeasement
• 1936, Germany invades the Rhineland
• 1938, Germany annexes Austria
• Sept. 1938 - Munich Conference on the
Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia
Kristallnacht, or “The Night of Broken
Glass, ” Nov. 9, 1938
Rounded up Jewish population into ghettos
• Forced to work in German war factories
Foreshadowed
Hitler’s Final
Solution
Nov. 1939 – end to
Jewish immigration
from Germancontrolled areas.
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Meanwhile in Italy
1935 – Nationalist Party returns to power
Fascist government under Mussolini
Italian invasion of Ethiopia, fell in 7 months
Only independent Black nation in Africa
Symbol for African Diaspora
Emperor Haile Selassie to
League of Nations
"It is us (Ethiopia) today.
It will be you tomorrow.“
The Spanish Civil War
• After years of upheaval and revolt, elections in
Spain in 1931 resulted in a new coalition govt.:
• Peasants wanting land reform
• Repressed ethnic groups like Basque, Catalonians
• Urban workers wanting better wages/conditions,
• Liberals and socialists wanting a representative
govt instead of a monarchy, separation of church
and state, less repression, etc…
• Called Republicans, Coalition, Loyalists
• Continued strife and power switches between
coalition and monarchists/Church/military, known as
the Nationalists (Fascists).
The Spanish Civil War
• 1936 election returns a strong Coalition
majority.
• Gen. Franco’s revolt in 1936 established a
military dictatorship.
• Legally elected Coalition govt tried to fight
back• Result: full scale Civil War in Spain, lots of
guerilla war fare.
Spanish Civil War
• Nationalists received aid from Germany and Italy
• Hitler used Spanish Civil War as a testing ground
for all his new military technologies-air power,
bombs, tanks, guns, etc…
• No one would sell weapons to the Loyalists (those
loyal to the Coalition gov’t) under guise of neutrality,
including the U.S.
• Finally, Soviet Union began supplying weapons to
the Loyalists, when it became apparent that no one
else was going to help them.
• Within the U.S., private citizens sent $ and people
from all over the world went to Spain to help fight.
International Brigades
• 35,000 people from 50 countries and colonies.
• 80 African-American men and one African
American woman, nurse Salaria Kee.
• Volunteered for a variety of reasons.
• Members of international communist party,
Soviet Union, as leader of int’l party advocated
end to racism, segregation. Very popular with
African-Americans.
• Saw it as a form of revenge against invasion of
Ethiopia- had been the only independent black
nation in Africa, not helped by U.S./Europe when
invaded.
• Civil war only 70 yrs previous-parents and
grandparents told stories of fighting for freedomthis generation’s opportunity to fight for freedom.
Getting to Spain
• As volunteers, paid for and supplied everything
themselves-tickets, clothes, supplies, weapons
• U.S. stamped “NOT VALID FOR TRAVEL TO SPAIN”
on all U.S. passports, so they had to go to France,
then cross the Pyrenees Mts. on foot, to join Loyalist
army
• All Americans in integrated Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
• Once there, treated like everyone else and judged by
merit.
• Ex: Oliver Law, after commanding a machine gun
crew under 120 days of heavy fire, promoted to
captain, then later battalion commander, becoming the
first African American man in history to command a
predominately white military unit.
International Brigades
• Units from all over the world
• Members of royal Ethiopian family served as
regular soldiers in a Pan-Africa unit as a way to
fight the Fascists from Italy who had taken over
their country.
• Canada, U.S., Cuba, Ireland, Germany, Italy,
black Britons, Latin Americans, 1 Ugandan.
• Americans said they tended to feel the most
alienated from white members of Abraham
Lincoln brigade.
• Members of the Australian
Tom Mann Brigade and the
American Abraham Lincoln
Brigade
The Loyalists were
always badly
outmanned and outsupplied: weapons,
food, medical
supplies, etc…
Germany and Italy continued to supply Franco
with weapons, supplies and fresh troops.
Barcelona fell in Jan. of 1939, unconditional
surrender 2 months later.
Guerilla warfare
continued for
years afterward,
into the 1950s
Spain under
Franco
dictatorships for
40 years, from
1939-1975
Foreign troops
sent home
before
surrender.
African Americans returned
to racism and segregation
in the U.S.
Particularly highlighted
racism in U.S.-military still
segregated and blacks only
allowed to serve in menial
positions.
Lessons of the Spanish Civil War
• Hitler tested his war machine
• Hitler learned that “the West” will not
intervene
• Stalin learned “the West” would not
intervene to help him should Hitler invade
the Soviet Union (Hitler hated communists
almost as much as Jews)
• 1939 – Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
• Sept. 1939-Germany
invades Poland, falls
in 3 weeks
• Blitzkrieg warfare
• Britain & France
declare war on
Germany
• Denmark, Norway,
Belgium and Holland
fall to Germany
• Germany invades
France, France falls
in a few weeks
Germany now controls continental Europe,
except Britain and the Soviet Union
The British Campaign
• Germany begins saturation bombing
campaign against British cities: civilian
targets, trying to break morale, has opposite
effect. Britain held on.
• British children evacuated to countryside
U.S. Reaction
• Neutrality Acts prohibited supplying any
belligerent nations (victims or aggressors)
• FDR’s plans
• Cash & Carry
• Destroyers for Bases
• Lend-Lease
• 1941 – Hitler
breaks the NaziSoviet Pact and
invades the
Soviet Union,
expecting a quick
victory.
Pearl Harbor
• U.S. intercepted and decoded a Japanese
transmission indicating an attack was likely
• U.S. assumed it would be in the Philippines
• Did not believe Japanese could make it all the
way to Hawaii, badly underestimated them.
• Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941. Surprise attack at
dawn.
• <3 hours, destroyed most aircraft and naval
vessels (luckily 2 aircraft carriers out w/Pacific
Fleet on maneuvers), 2,400 dead, 1,100
injured.
Japan attacked Philippines
the next day
FDR asked for, and
received a declaration of
war from Congress,
against Japan.
Japan expected it to take
at least a year for the U.S.
to rebuild and prepare for
war.
•Full mobilization in less than 6
months
Dec. 11 – Hitler declares war on
U.S.
Italy follows
Two Front War
• U.S. fighting in Europe and the Pacific
• Allies: U.S., Britain, Soviet Union
• Churchill and FDR: focus on Germany
first, Japan second
• Stalin pushing for 2nd Front in Europe.
• FDR & Churchill put
off Stalin
• Start in North Africa
• Italy
• 2nd front put off until
1944
• In the meantime,
U.S.S.R. suffered the
highest casualty
rates and destruction
• Issues w/death toll
rates
• Ruthlessness of
Germany military
Issues w/ postponement of the 2nd Front caused Stalin to
mistrust FDR and Churchill, Trying to “Bleed the Soviet
Union dry”
Nachthexen - Pilots from the Russian 588th Night
Bomber Regiment
Soviet all-female
sniper company
• Shipping slave laborers to Germany 1942
• Execution of women & children in Mizoch 1942
Stalingrad, 1942
The European Theatre
• By 1942, saturation bombing of German cities
• Civilian targets
• Dresden
The Big Three at Teheran, late 1943
FDR and Churchill finally agreed to the 2nd Front
The Big Three at Yalta, Feb. ‘44
• Agree to set up international body (become the
United Nations)
• Soviets agree to enter the war against Japan 3
months after Germany’s defeat
• Stalin insists on Soviet control of Eastern
Europe, esp. Poland
• Compromise on free
elections “as soon as
possible” after war
The Normandy Invasion June 6, 1944
• under Gen. Eisenhower
• Succeed in splitting Germany’s troops,
pushing
them out of
France &
Belgium.
April 1945
• Soviets pushed
Germans out of
their country,
Eastern Europe,
to German
border & invade
from west
• U.S./British/Fren
ch coalition
moving toward
Germany from
East
• FDR dies April
12th
• Hitler commits
suicide April 30
Berlin fell to the Soviets May 2,
official surrender May 7, 1945